100 Year Old Enterprise Sausage Machine Restoration Help

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toddwardzinski

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2016
4
10
All, 

A family heirloom of sorts has recently been given to me.  For years the machine made kielbasa from a family recipe that's been passed down through the generations.  Now it's my turn :-).

Pictures: 

From the pictures you'll see that it's an Enterprise sausage machine, but, I don't have much more information to go off of.  

Some notes:

 - The machine is around 100 years old.

 - Everything is functioning as expected with the unit.  Everything turns, etc.

 - It appears as though it's model number Enterprise 2070. 

Some Questions:

 - What's the best approach to restoring this beast?  It appears as though there's paint on much of the unit and I feel as though this should be stripped off.

 - What kind of lubricating fluid can be used being that it's a food grade appliance?

 - It seems as though I may be missing additional parts (but unsure).  I have the plate for the bottom on the screw and the casing nozzle (and locknut).  However, pictures from this ebay link show a few more parts (http://goo.gl/twhbDp

Any help here would be appreciated.
 
I will try to help, I have one that's older than I am. If you remember, pm me tomorrow for pics of mine.

Anyway, it's not painted, well mine isn't. It's cast iron. Needs to be treated like cast iron.

We always used lard for lube because we butchered pigs and pressed lard. It looks like your missing the basket.
 
So I have cast iron pans, they definitely don't have the chipping effect this cast iron seems to have.  I was thinking about getting the unit sandblasted and then rebuild the coating.  Any opinions on this?  My concern might be particulates getting into the greased areas.

What is the use for the basket?  I will say, the push plate seems to fit quite nicely with very little clearance between the machine walls and plate.
 
I don't know how I would go about refinishing.

I am going on memories here, I think the basket was used to push lard. It caught the big pieces that was turned cracklins.
 
Last edited:
DO NOT SANDBLAST IT !!!!!     You could erode the metal badly....  I would wash it well in very hot water.... maybe the dishwasher...  dry.... then coat with flax seed oil and bake at 400 ish in your gas grill...  use a good therm...   do that about 4-5 times... 

Check out the threads on here about seasoning cast iron using flax seed oil...  once seasoned, lard is all it will need..
 
Clean out the oil holes and be sure they stay open during the seasoning process... and use them....   I would use mineral oil from the pharmacy to lube it....
 
There you go, Dave answered the seasoning process
 
Can you clarify "Use a good therm"?  How long to bake in grill for each iteration?  

Also, should the flax seed oil be applied when the unit is hot?
 
Bake until it quits smoking.....   Cool to room temp between applications....  that includes the BBQ / oven...apply a VERY thin coat...  any cupped surfaces should be place face down so they do not pool the oil.... you want all the excess to run off...  apply to a cool surface.....
 
If you're going to apply a new finish to the metal, everything that's on the metal has to off the metal to make it work.

Sand blasting, is not the best option, But there are other mediums that can be used if that's the route you want to take. Make sure you find a qualified person to do it.

If you want to tackle it yourself, I'd say get out your gloves and wire brush what you can and put a wire wheel on a drill after that. That's what I did to mine.

Then season it with flaxseed oil like you would for any cast iron pan, or pot.

Then get online and find the place that sells the cutting board material shaped to fit as a gasket on the plunger.

Use it twice, then buy a good vertical stuffer for around a hundred bucks!

I used mine for years and it was a pain to use, pain to clean and I gave up on sausage making.

Just some advice...
 
The last time i was at Allied Kenco they had a wall of parts for the enterprise stuffers.
 
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